George Orwell's Animal Farm Introduction:Animal Farm is a short story written by George Orwell in 1945. He had a lot of difficulty getting it published due to its underlying criticism of the political situation in Russia at the time. The story takes place on a farm somewhere in England. The owner of the farm, Mr.Jones, comes into conflict with the animals. The animals rebel, and finally scare him away. Two of the strongest animals, Napoleon and Snowball (two pigs), think that they can run the farm. Napoleon: Both Napoleon and Snowball felt that they should both be leaders in the early stages of the Revolution. Snowball had many ideas about how the Farm should be run but he came into conflict with Napoleon over many of them. Napoleon, was a shrewd pig who could see that he could not carry on working with Snowball. This was shown when the two of them could not agree on the building of a windmill.When it looked as though Snowball might win the arguement, Napoleon "uttered a high-pitched whimper of a kind no one had ever heard him utter before" and the vicious dogs ran in and attacked Snowball and ran him off the farm. Eventually Napoloeon won and the windmill was built, and soon after Napoleon ran Snowball off the farm. In order to make sure that he would stay leader in the future, Napoleon told the animals that Snowball was against them and was friendly with the old farm owner, Mr.Jones. The similarity between Napoleon and Joseph Stalin (the Russian leader), is very clear. Without being elected both became leaders, surrounding themselves with powerful guards (the dogs in the case of Napoloeon), living in luxury while the workers were forced to work hard. At first Napoleon seemed to be a good leader, but very quickly became greedy and power-mad, causing conflict among the animals. As in Russia, the idea of Socialism soon changed to a virtual dictatorship, with Napoleon ordering animals to build and work while he sat around. When some of the other animals decided that he should no longer be a leader, Napoleon set the dogs on them and had them slaughtered. He had become power mad, going totally against the ideas of socialism, and ruling through fear, as did Stalin. As time went on, he became like Mr.Jones, caring for himself without thinking about the others, which was partly the reason for the original Revolution. Food rations were under his control, making sure that he got plently but the animals got just enough to keep them working. Soon after the Revolution the animals got together to make seven commandments that they should all stick to, but Napoleon slowly
In the middle of the 1930s, Adolf Hitler began his rise to power in Germany, initiating the start of the Second World War and spread fear across Western Europe. During this time period, George Orwell began writing his novella, Animal Farm, which has been said to represent the events of the communist revolution; yet according to an analysis of the new historic lens, no book, no matter the style, can escape the hindrance of social context; proving that the air surrounding the war, impacted the literature written in this time. While it may not be about World War Two, Animal Farm, like all other writings was impacted by its surroundings. An analysis of George Orwell’s Animal Farm reveals that his work, being written in the 1940s, was greatly influenced by the events surrounding World War Two, which took place across all of Europe.
There are several themes in Animal Farm, some including: Leadership and corruption, control of naïve working class, lies and deception, and dreams and hopes. The main themes in Animal Farm leadership and corruption. Animal Farm portrays the history of the Russian Revolution by retelling the development of communism. In the novel, by overthrowing Mr. Jones, the animals give the power to the pigs who take complete control of the farm. The struggle for superiority between Leon Trotsky, a Russian revolutionary, and Stalin, a Soviet statesman, is portrayed by the rivalry between the pigs, Napoleon and Snowball. In both cases, the less powerful one, Trotsky and Snowball, is eliminated by the more superior one, Stalin and Napoleon. Stalin's rule and abandonment of the founding principles of the Russian Revolution are portrayed when the pigs adopt human traits and behaviors, which they originally tried to escape. “Twelve voices were shouting in anger, and they were all alike. No question, now, what had happened to the faces of the pigs. The creatures outside looked from pig to man, and from ...
The saying “history repeats itself” is used quite often, but how many times have you actually seen it happen? The book Animal Farm portrays the idea of history repeating itself. The character Benjamin and the pigs in the story show history repeating itself throughout the book. In addition to these characters within the book, North Korea displays history's repetition outside the book.
Napoleon has an obvious relationship with the famous Russian dictator, Joseph Stalin. Joseph Stalin was the dictator of the Soviet Union who was known from the mid 1920’s to 1953. Just like Napoleon, he was a cold, heartless dictator who would kill anyone who did not agree with what he had, to say just like Napoleon in the book Animal Farm. Napoleon used lots of violence in order to keep and maintain his leading position in Animal Farm. An example of this can be seen when Napoleon is training the puppies, but he is not doing it not for their own education, but instead so that they could protect him and eliminate anyone who stands in his way.
How would you handle being underfed, overworked, naive, unequal and absolutely controlled? Would you feel like all your work was being done for the good of someone else? What if you became trapped by an absolute and supreme leader? The animals of Manor Farm know all these feelings. They want a community for the animals, by the animals, where all are equal and work is done for the good of the animals.
The corrupting influence of power on Animal Farm creates two very different characters, Snowball and Napoleon. Even though Snowball, who is the lively and friendly pig, and Napoleon who is the fierce, cruel boar, they have their similarities. They want to become the leaders of Animal Farm, they agree on the seven commandments and Animalism, and they are masters of convincing and persuasion. Although most characters are not perfectly similar or polar opposites, it is important to know that the end of Animal Farm may have been quite similar if it had ended with Snowball as the leader.
As soon as Old Major had died Napoleon took his place as the leader of
"He who wants to persuade should put his trust not in the right argument, but in the right word. The power of sound has always been greater than the power of sense."
I personally thought animal farm was a really good book. It was a simple, easy to read story. The analysis of this book is pretty easy to figure out. Animal farm represents
From the very beginning, Napoleon started breaking the commandment that stated all animals are equal. He had all the milk and apples set aside for the pigs. He put forth the idea that the pigs depended on these things for survival, and that it was in the interest of the entire farm that they be set aside for them. The others were convinced by Squealer’s arguments that
Napoleon was a leader who led with an iron fist. A fist he used to secretly abuse his fellow animal. He began by raising several ferocious dogs to aid him in enforcing his rules, laws, and expectations. Using them, he abruptly ended Snowballs reign by using the dogs to exile him from the farm. Shortly after, he halted the construction of the windmill. More often than not he would cleverly work his way around the seven commandments by altering them to his pleasure. For example, 'Now animal shall drink alcohol to excess.'; Or 'No animal shall sleep in a bed with sheets.'; Napoleon grounded the rations of each and every animal. The farm slowly fell into a dark abyss with every wretched move Napoleon made.
All of the characters in Animal farm have counterparts in real life. This book was based on the Russian Revolution, and all the important populace of the revolution are symbolized. Some of the animals represent individuals in the Russian Revolution, and some types of animals represent different types of Russian citizens. The book carries out much like the actual revolution. It starts out with hopes of an empire where all are equal and the unfair unjust leader is thrown out. Then it moves on to where some individuals begin to take more power than is rightfully theirs. At the end the rulers have completely taken over and the kingdom is as it was under the original rulers. I will compare the animals from top of the social class to the bottom. At the top were the pigs. Each pig represented someone different in the revolution. Old Major is compared to Lenin. He was an ideologist who dreamed up a wonderful government where all the animals were equal and the humans, or the czars, were pushed out. Unfortunately his dream would never materialize. Then we are left with his predecessors. The first is Snowball. Snowball believed one hundred percent in Old Majors ideals. He wanted all the things Old Major wanted, such as the welfare of the animals. In the Russian Revolution his counterpart would be Trotsky. Trotsky believed and wanted the same things as Lenin, and wanted to continue what Lenin had started. Then comes Napoleon. Napoleon was selfish and greedy. He did not want to share the power or the decision making with any other individual. This was the same for Stalin. At first Napoleon and Snowball shared the decision making and had debates about what course of action they would take. This worked for awhile. Then Napoleon grew weary of long debates, and he thought he could make the decision by himself. He then forced Snowball out of the farm and started to spread lies about Snowball to get the entire farm against him. Stalin did the same thing against Trotsky and forced Trotsky into hiding into Mexico, where he was eventually assassinated. Both Stalin and Napoleon ruined any hopes of equal and fare government and instead set up dictatorships. Then comes the final important pig, Squealer. Squealer did not make the decisions in the government but acted more like the controlled media as in the Russian government.
The novel “Animal Farm” written by George Orwell revolves around the themes of dreams, hopes and plans. In the novel these themes clash with one another and bring out the turmoil in the novel. The writer has carefully chosen the appropriate characters which are helpful to bring out these themes. The animals in the farm, who insanely fallowed the dreamy utopian concepts which promised them a world of which everyone works well with each other and is happy, finally trapped and enslaved by the same concepts they fallowed. Anyone may argue that it is the self-centered rulers, the pigs who have power over the poor animal transform ‘the dream of a better or more perfect society in “Animal Farm” into a totalitarian nightmare.’ This paper discusses ‘the main causes that transformed the dream of a better or more perfect society in “Animal Farm” into a totalitarian nightmare’, such as intellectual inferiority, violation of rules and regulation, lack of education and awareness in relation to the “actions” and the behavior of the subjected animals.
In George Orwell's novel Animal Farm he writes a fairy tale with a meaning. In other words, it is about a bunch of animals living on a farm that decide to rebel against all humans starting with running their owner off by attack. This is compared to the Russian Revolution which is what I will be talking about in the paper. I will state which animal played which role and compare the animal to the person for whom they portray.
George Orwell's, Animal Farm, depicts how power can corrupt society. If one person receives too much power, one will most likely lead up to dictatorship. To exemplify this idea, Orwell uses a farm to represent a society and the animals inside to portray the people. Orwell's use of the pigs and animals are also an analogy that people sometimes act as 'mindless pigs';. Orwell makes the reader realize just how bad a society of dictatorship can really be.